The music industry is most known for
the willy-nilly sue everyone antics of the RIAA as it sought to stamp
out piracy. During the heyday of the suits, the RIAA sued people that
were dead, kids, and many others with little or no proof that they
had actually done anything wrong.

The massive legal assault on
suspected music pirates led to some notable victories by the music
industry such as the 2008 legal victory for the industry that set a
precedent for people who made
music available on file sharing sites. There was a significant
case where the people charged the music industry with wrongdoing for
a change.

In October of 2008, a district judge in New York
dismissed a case brought against defendants including Bertelsmann AG,
EMI Group, Sony Corp, Vivendi SA and Warner Music Group Corp and
various affiliates of these music companies. The U.S. Second Circuit
Court of Appeals in New York has now ruled that the judge on the
original 2008 case was
in error when he dismissed the suit.

The suit alleges that
the defendants named in the original case had conspired together to
fix the price of music sold online. The suit also alleged that the
defendants limited the availability of downloaded music in violation
of antitrust law, specifically a violation of the Sherman
Act.

Christopher Lovell, legal representation for the
plaintiffs, said, "There was uncertainty in the law over the
standards for pleading a price-fixing conspiracy. This decision goes
a long way toward clarifying what the standard requires in a way that
helps people who paid allegedly conspiratorial prices for digital
music."

Lovell is looking to turn the original suit into
a class action and feels that the outcome of the case could affect
millions by consolidating 28 different state and federal cases from
2005 to 2006. According to the plaintiffs in the case, the named
music industry companies conspired to fix the price of a song at
wholesale at 70 cents.

Circuit Judge Robert Katzmann wrote
that assuming allegations were true there was "enough factual
matter" to allow the case to go forward. One key statement that
Katzmann pointed out was an assessment by a commenter that "nobody
in their right mind" would use services like MusicNet and
Pressplay – those are two of the music services ran by the
defendants in the case. The judge felt that some sort of agreement
for a price floor between the music industry players would have been
needed to make those services viable.